keep the values high so that the big money can get out and so ALGORE can be elected to replace the current disgrace. The sad part is that the poor people who can least afford it will lose money the need to live on and for retirement while the higher income people who can afford to lose will get out. Anybody who is not on the internet doesn't have a clue of the huge risk that the inflated economy represents. The manipulation of the cost of living, no inflation, fuel prices factored out of the numbers, smaller cost of living adjustments than actual inflation etc. are one big PONZI scheme. The debt levels, PE ratios etc. are at an all time high. The people are not investors. An investor would have at least a slight idea of what is happening. A better description of these people would be that they are naive people who want something for nothing and want to believe that the market will always go up. The higher it goes, the further it will fall. Look what happened in Japan. They had a speculative boom that ended in 1989 with their stock market at roughly 39000. It fell to around 14,000 went to around 17,000 with no recovery in sight after more than 10 years of recession. It could happen here.

The whole problem starts in the high schools. How many graduates take even one course in economics? 5%? Look at the number of people who borrow money on their credit cards and pay 15 , 18 or 20 % interest each year on the balance. This is stupid. If they had $5,000 on the credit card for 10 years of their working life, at 20% this is $1,000 each year for interest times 10 years or $10,000 that they could have used to pay cash for a newer car or as a down payment for a home. If they had saved the $5,000, they could have avoided this interest expense that was double the $5,000 fund that could have been used for other purposes. This is called compound interest.

What if a recession comes, and people lose their jobs? Defaults, repossessions, bank failures etc. will happen. The unemployment rate is much higher than reported already since as people lose eligibility for unemployment or quit trying to find work, they tend to disappear from the unemployment numbers. Where did these jobs go? Overseas? NAFTA was good for the working people? I do not believe it.

-- Tom (Tom@notstupid.gom), July 07, 2000

Answers

thank GOD,this world-system,is not my PERMANENT-HOME!!!!!!! looking-towards-heaven!

-- al-d. (dogs@zianet.com), July 08, 2000.

What a collection of HOGWASH. And this hogwash is so easily dismissed by people with common sense..........it aids algore. THANKS FOR NOTHING.

Algore is dangerous because his tiny mind is filled with the usual beliefs of the DC Beltway he was raised in. Central Gov. Good. DC can do it better than Local and all the rest of the things that lead to Beltline Bloat before Reagan and then Newt/reformers. Even the first sinner understood that GOV. had to be cut back in the same way that Private Business was trimmed of Middle and Upper Mgt. FAT and FAT- Heads. (Still going on as a result of the computerization automating the "white collar sector").

The entire US was built on European Capital in the form of DEBT until 1900 when enough industrialization was completed enabling the accumulation of giant amounts of US private capital. Along the way, foreign investors' capital paid for the Railroad construction, Erie Canal building, construction of major mining facilities and of course, our "WARS".

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), July 08, 2000.

IMHO, the markets will not be allowed to crash until the public is left holding the bag.

The current bankruptcy legislation passing through our esteemed congress will soon be passed and signed by Clinton. It is my understanding that this legislation will virtually wipe out the Chapter 7 option for the public and route everything towards reorganization (Chapter 13). The institutions that have been providing the American Public with the huge amounts of credit over the last several years are lobbying congress hard to get this bill passed and signed.

Once chapter 7 is not an option, the markets will be allowed to crash. I do believe in the govt manipulation of markets. I see it all the time (especially the gold market).

Once the overextended public finally gets into financial trouble, they will see what the politicians have done to them in the name of protecting the money creators. It will be an ugly time.

If anyone has any more infromation with regard to this legislation, please post it. I do believe this reform will be a key indicator as to when the inflated markets will deflate.

-- greg holmberg (drgah@earthlink.com), July 08, 2000.

You can do a Thomas query on current legislation (http://thomas.loc.gov /home/c106query.html), word search on bankruptcy, and the Bankruptcy Reform Act(s) of 1999 and 2000 will be in the list. Happy hunting. It helps to have a copy of Title 11, U.S. Code handy (which isn't nearly as interesting as the Attorney General's Report on Pornography).

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), July 08, 2000.

A fool and his money are soon parted.

-- Will (righthere@home.now), July 08, 2000.